aliya blackshear '20 Recruiting Profile

 My name is Aliya Blackshear. I come from the city of New Castle, PA where I attend New Castle Jr/Sr High School. I am currently a junior playing at the varsity level for volleyball. When I was in 6th grade moving to the 7th, junior high volleyball caught my attention, I was not playing any sports at this time.  Even though I was very new to the sport after my very first game in junior high volleyball I fell in love with the sport. After practicing day in and day out I soon came to a realization that I wanted to move forward with my volleyball career. I remember trying out with my friend and making the team, it was the best day ever. The first game came along in the season and I was one of the starting six on the team. From that day forward I knew that I always had to work my hardest to prove that I deserved my position. 

 My first varsity year as a freshman, I played middle blocker and played all six rotations. I was very nervous, but I knew that this is what i've worked so hard for, I wanted to be in this position. I wanted to win and everybody knew it.  The respect I gave the coaches and other players was reciprocated. I knew I loved everything about volleyball from the arguments to the team bonding. Going into my sophmore season, I knew  my volleyball skills needed to improve tremendously for me to be where I wanted and needed to be. During the summer break we did summer volleyball which helped with my volleyball skills a lot. I also joined a club volleyball team called Topspin, there was so much room for improvment and I took advantage of it. Coming back for my Junior season and looking back I could see how much my skills had improved and how I had grown as a teammate. I try my very best to work very hard at both academics and athletics. I am currently in my Junior year, 5'7" middle blocker playing all 6 rotations. Seeing how close I am to finishing high school, I am very excited to see what the near future holds for me.